Hearing aids of the type to be worn on the body of the user are old in the art. An example of such is U.S. Pat. No. 2,482,288, issued Sept. 20, 1949 to Posen and subsequently reissued on Mar. 7, 1950 as Re. Pat. No. 23,203.
Posen discloses a portable hearing aid including a receiver or an earphone to be placed in the ear of the user and a housing, containing a microphone, amplifier and batteries, carried on the body of the user.
Posen is designed as a hearing aid for a single user to be carried on the body of the user and not as a communications device to be carried on the body of a first person of normal hearing for communication with a second person of impaired hearing. In Posen, the mocrophone is located on the side of the housing, as opposed to the top portion of the housing, which makes it difficult for the microphone to detect spoken words by the party wearing the device.
Additionally, other hearing aids have been developed for use by a person having impaired hearing. However, these devices typically undergo extensive miniaturization so as to conceal their presence on the body of the user. As a result these devices are relatively expensive due to the miniaturized components. Furthermore, these devices do not provide a practical communication apparatus which is carried on the body of a person of normal hearing for use with those having impaired hearing.
The present invention solves these and many other problems associated with the prior art.